Connection research · Research date 2026-09-15
Common Ground’s Western States Center contact sits adjacent to a separate WSC/WSS/527 funding chain into Idaho politics
Recorded status: Verified contact, affiliate structure and organization-to-organization transactions; no causal or same-dollar connection from Common Ground to Idaho PAC spending established.
This is a dated research record. Its qualifications and open questions are part of the account. Association alone does not establish wrongdoing or control.
Common Ground — United We Stand's December 2024 newsletter says Chenele Dixon and Charlie Conrad met with Western States Center and that the meeting led to additional connections with pro-democracy/effective-government organizations. Western States Center's current website states it is the joint website of Western States Center, a 501(c)(3), and Western States Strategies, a 501(c)(4); Western States Strategies separately describes itself as organized and operated as an affiliate of Western States Center. IRS-derived records show Western Futures Fund granted Western States Strategies $13,500 in 2022 and $10,000 in 2024. The Democracy Program Political Fund, a 527 whose stated purpose is to influence elections, reports Western States Strategies contributions totaling $24,950 and reports $27,000 of expenditures to Defend and Protect Idaho in 2026. This produces a documented adjacency: Common Ground had direct organizational contact with Western States Center; Western States Center has a formal c4 affiliate Western States Strategies; WSS has separate funding/527 relationships that reach an Idaho PAC. The evidence does NOT show Common Ground funded, directed, participated in or knew of those WSS/527/Idaho transactions, and pooled funds prevent tracing the specific Western Futures grants into the later Idaho expenditures.